SAN FRANCISCO, CA - DECEMBER 10: Food scraps are seen in a compost bin at The Slanted Door restaurant on December 10, 2010 in San Francisco, California. One year after the San Francisco board of supervisors passed the nation's strictest recycling law, the residents of San Francisco have composts more than any other city in the country, with a 200 percent one year jump in composting. The city has also achieved a better than expected 77 percent diversion from landfill goal that was set at 75 percent by 2010, the nation's highest for any city. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

DENVER — Denver is taking new steps to eliminate food waste in the city.

Certifiably Green Denver,
the city’s program that offers free advising services to help business make their practices more green, created the Food Waste Pilot Program to help Denver restaurants prevent wasted food at the source, donate pre-consumer leftovers and recycle food waste via composting.

Restaurants generate about 25% of Denver’s food waste, which is the second-highest sector after households, which stand at 41%.

In addition, Root Down and its parent company, Edible Beats, will participate on a consulting basis.

“Working with restaurants on this makes so much sense because chefs already are trained to create their menus using as much of any given ingredient as possible,” said Susan Renaud, community engagement administrator for DDPHE’s Certifiably Green Denver. “Chefs also are such visible and valuable contributors to our community, and their attention to food waste will help us reach a larger audience.”

The restaurants will be asked to adopt one strategy to reduce food waste. Each business will get complimentary waste audits at the beginning and end of the pilot, which is expected to last about two months.

The Colorado-based nonprofit We Don’t Waste will provide free food donation pickups at the restaurants three times a week.